Bolinawan

Bolinawan – [(nat.) bolinao (anchovy) and –an (suff., a place where one can do or get a particular thing)].

Before it became the name of the whole barrio, Bolinawan was the name of just one of the old places merged to form the new barrio. Thus, in the old records, by its name alone, the main characteristic of the place clearly was where one can get bolinao. The small fish must have been plainly plentiful there, or most probably, specifically in the coastal sitio now called Dunggo-an (docking place). Thus, it is not improbable that Dunggo-an was once actually the Bolinawan of old.

I dare conjecture on this because looking over the present center of the barangay, almost a kilometer from the shore, there is nothing to suggest that bolinao could once have been found in this area, since by the name itself bolinawan was obviously a settlement where there were lots of bolinao, and thus the name — unless there was once a market in this new center, where people could go to buy bolinao, so it was the bolinawan, and did not have to go to the dunggo-an. But the more concentrated population would conceivably be the dunggo-an where the fishermen congregated to live, and not this plain new center that does not seem to offer a means of livelihood — except farming, but that involves a sparse population where people live far from each other.

So let me try this tact: While Bolinawan was chosen to be the name of the new barrio when it was established but since plainly, the entire area of the barangay could not have been bolinao country, so the Bolinawan of old could only have been just the coastal settlement, and present-day Dunggo-an just a section in it. But there was even no mention of the name Dunggo-an then.

Therefore, the new center, where the barangay hall is presently located, it must have had another locality name itself, if it ever was a locale. What could this place have been called before the merger?

Of the present places (now called sitios) that comprise barangay Bolinawan, only Cambuntan, Canal, Lagang and Montepasi, along with Bolinauan, already figure in the 1850-51 parish book. However, Lagang is shared with Ocaña and we can’t tell where the central Lagang in 1850 was located–whether inside present-day Bolinawan or in Ocaña. Meanwhile, Canal is a Spanish word and, interestingly, with Garay, are the only Spanish place names of the 50-some found in the book mentioned.